Outdoor patio furniture manufacturers are constantly seeking to develop new product designs and new ideas for reducing manufacturing costs and time. Patio furniture can be custom made or manufactured in relatively low quantities from wrought iron or wood. The more traditional patio furniture is mass produced in many attractive and distinctive designs and color combinations. Typical of these designs are the casual outdoor furniture products made from welded tubular aluminum framing with a tough baked enamel finish and seating of vinyl lacing or nylon. The outdoor furniture of this type is durable for full time outdoor use.
Certain outdoor furniture designs are more easily manufactured from one type of material than another. For example, outdoor patio furniture made of wood can have the seating surfaces and chair backs made of spaced apart, horizontal slats in a ladder type of frame design. These types of chairs are also reasonably easy to manufacture in cheap plastic outdoor patio chair designs.
It would be desirable to manufacture patio chairs with seating surfaces in a ladder frame style with metal slats so that these chairs can have attractive designs that look somewhat like slatted patio furniture made of wood. However, fabrication and assembly techniques common to the manufacture of metal patio furniture cannot be used to make slatted metal patio furniture if these techniques result in designs which are not pleasing aesthetically. For instance, visible welds used to fasten the slats to the chair rails are undesirable. Large wide open and visible slots for holding the slats in the chair rails also are undesirable. In addition, the techniques used for manufacturing slatted metal patio furniture must be adaptable to mass production techniques at reasonably low cost and assembly time.
The present invention provides techniques for manufacturing patio chairs in a ladder frame style with metal slats which allows these chairs to be made in attractive designs having the appearance of slatted patio chairs made of wood. Metal patio chairs made from this method can be manufactured in attractive designs with low manufacturing costs and time. A significant advantage is that the chair avoids the problems of similar patio chairs made of wood which are prone to weathering and lack the same level of strength and durability for full-time outdoor use. The chair of this invention is particularly useful in withstanding high volume use, such as in hotels and motels, where the chairs are subject to abuse and are needed for full-time outdoor use.